Hundreds of trees and thousands of daffodil bulbs are putting a major new business park in the vanguard of environmental standards.
The 35-acre, £50m Hawke Ridge Business Park near Westbury could support over 1,000 jobs when its 500,000 sq ft of business space is completed. 
In the meantime Bath-based developer HPH has appointed consultancy Sightline Landscape, also based in the city, to introduce a raft of environmental features to complement and enhance its setting.
Nectar-rich flowers are being planted to help a site-wide bee strategy and the layout of the park will ensure commuting corridors for bats are protected.
When finished, Hawke Ridge Business Park will be home to at least 3,000 daffodil bulbs, 1,450 native trees, 1.5km of native hedgerow, and a one-acre wildflower meadow.
Sightline Landscape director Chris McDermott said: “Hawke Ridge Business Park has an attractive setting beside Bitham Brook below the chalk escarpment of the Westbury White Horse.
“Extensive use of native trees and the establishment of new hedgerows will integrate it into the surrounding landscape. Biodiversity will be enhanced by creating over an acre of wildflower rich grassland throughout the development.
“Easy access into the park will be provided by a new roundabout on the B3097. Avenue trees will line the new entrance into the site and the extensive use of wildflower turf and bulb planting set against neatly maintained verges will establish a high quality, attractive eco-friendly landscape. The new roundabout benefits from a sustainable drainage system of swales and ditches.
“As each plot is developed it will be separated from the next plot by a new native species hedge to build up a network of wildlife corridors through the site.”
Supporting local ecology and biodiversity is important to HPH. Managing director Lindsay Holdoway, pictured, said: “We take our responsibilities as a property owner very seriously, whether we are working with a specific occupier to help meet their needs, creating a modern unit or looking at the wider scheme and its impact on the surrounding area.
“As well as providing crucial state-of-the-art industrial facilities at Hawke Ridge Business Park with all the infrastructure and connectivity modern occupiers require – something business community is crying out for – we are also being mindful of its setting.
“The business park will provide modern, energy efficient buildings with high environmental performance and these will be matched by the external environment which will include an array of green features from native trees and hedgerows to wildflowers and deliberate planting to encourage wildlife.
“Hawke Ridge will also include open green spaces along the Bitham Brook, which will be complemented by easy access to the public right of way network, allowing workers at the site to enjoy the out-of-doors and make the most of the surrounding countryside.”
Hawke Ridge Business Park is being marketed by Alder King and JLL.
